The Educational Foundation Araçatuba - FEA was established by Municipal Law 1306/67 of March 27, 1967, to meet the social demand exists in the city of Araçatuba, northwest of São Paulo, lacking higher education institutions, with only two institutions at the time, a public state, the other private. The original intention of setting up the FEA
was to create a medical school, which did not materialize. In 1972, the Foundation made a covenant with UNESP (Universidade Estadual Paulista) for the creation of an annual technical course in prosthodontics subsequently extinguished (2000), to fill the need generated by the dental clinic of this institution at the time. College Educational Foundation Araçatuba - FAC has FEA-operate effectively in 1989 when the State Board of Education (CEE), and public entity responsible for monitoring the parameters of educational institution, approved the opening night of the course in Economic Sciences, with an initial offer of 160 places. In 1999 starts up a new evening course at the Faculty, the Administration with specialization in Foreign Trade, offering over 100 jobs. In 2000 the courses were opened (also nocturnal) of Administration in Business Management from public and private, with 80 seats, and Tourism, with 90 vacancies. The beginning of the Faculty of Education was in 2001, with 90 vacancies and psychology, with day courses (40 seats) in 2002, and nighttime (50 jobs) in 2006. Thus, Araçatuba School Educational Foundation was established as an institution of higher education focused on meeting the needs of the population that constitutes the community of Araçatuba - SP, with its 189 000 inhabitants (according to the IBGE census of 2002) and mesoregião in its vicinity, whose population of 678 000 inhabitants in the municipality has the main economic hub, political and administrative. The Educational Foundation Araçatuba - FEA, nonprofit organization with the purpose of offering courses in academic quality at low prices, since its inception has been geared to meet the needs of the population of the city and region, since the collection of fees paid by students brings benefits and maintenance of the institution itself, allowing the payment of the faculty, staff, infrastructure and investments necessary to ensure the quality of education. The Educational Foundation Aracatuba - ABF is managed in accordance with the Statute of the Institution, by a Board of Trustees, comprised of representatives from various segments of society, including an elected representative of the faculty and student body. The board members work voluntarily meet at least once a month and elect every two years President of the institution among its peers and may be reelected. There are 13 institutions that compose the Board of Trustees of FEA:

- Commercial and Industrial Association of Araçatuba

- Association of Engineers and Architects Northwest High

- Paulista Association of Dental Surgeons

- Associação Paulista de Medicina

- School Teachers Association of Official State of Sao Paulo

- Municipality of Araçatuba

- Council of the Association of Friends of Neighborhoods

- Lions Club

- Masonic Lodges

- Order of Lawyers of Brazil

- Municipality of Araçatuba

- Rotary Club

- Rural Union of Upper Northwest

To monitor and ensure the educational work of good quality, committees of teachers from the State Board of Education of the State of São Paulo (CEESP) and the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) are received periodically, while public funds are audited by the Court of Accounts of the State of São Paulo (TCESP). Any such review, participation and social commitment, made by state government agencies and civil society of the state and county are intended to give broad support to the achievement of the pedagogical work of educators and committed to serious social mission of the Foundation since its inception , which is to provide an education of better quality with lower price, including students in the competitive world of work through an integrated and continuous education of its faculty and students, in a democratic space that promotes actions aimed at economic, political and social the region and integrating institution to community.

MISSION

The FAC-FEA: an academic community under construction

The School of Araçatuba Educational Foundation (ACF-FEA) is a higher education institution with graduate programs in Business Administration, Sciences, Economics, Mathematics, Pedagogy, Psychology and a degree in psychology, maintained by the Educational Foundation Araçatuba, an entity created by Law Hall dating back to 1967, becoming as a community board model non-governmental public. This implies that students, parents, guardians (family), faculty, staff and alumni, as well as representatives of various civil society groups and entities that comprise the Board of Trustees, are considered members of the Community-FAC FEA.

It is understood from the Community reference in which the school, to take on the characteristics of a school-community, will allow the development of capacities of individuals in multiple directions, becoming as a fundamental structure in the construction and training of human beings (Heller , 1977). This proposal realizes that there are communities that arise from the need for construction of political activity and / or the development of individuality, come the will and intention of the men, through integration, establishing a conscious relationship with the human race and organized for the purpose of fulfilling goals toward building a better, more just and egalitarian. This community must provide an organized space to perform meaningful and enriching activities for the subjects, a living space in its entirety, a placeholder for the vital activity of man toward his development as a human being.

The FAC-FEA, being from that perspective, aims to provide a democratic space for reflection, research and intellectual debate that guarantees the free expression of epistemological options, theoretical, ethical and political management of which all members can participate directly or indirectly. In this sense then that the FAC-FEA's commitment to establish itself from a community perspective, seeking to ensure a structured and organized space where educators and students have opportunities to express itself freely and authentic, not limited to social charges and subservient to a bureaucratic and hierarchical structure. Thus, the FAC-FEA becomes significant area of life and vital activity for all subjects who participate in it, develops its characteristic public and community and seeks to ensure a human and professional education (students and teachers), with social responsibility.

The insertion of the graduates of the FAC-FEA in the labor market model emphasizes the critical role, not to adapt the subject to the market, but contribute to that they can construct questions about reality as a whole and the specific local / regional in order to provide for the effective qualitative transformation of these realities.

The FAC-FEA also allows the exercise of autonomy in their collective and individual social and academic, since it assumes the challenge of contributing to the necessary changes in postmodern society, where individualism reigns narcissism that leads to fragmentation, contrasting to the integration of knowledge that ensures the construction of public space. This project aims to develop its civil service, which includes the humanistic education of the professional and social responsibility. Given this reality, the FAC-FEA takes the perspective of integrated education as a fundamental building knowledge taking history as a reference, as raw material for its activity. School education should work with the objective knowledge, historically produced, as stated Saviani (2000), without forgetting the regional and popular knowledge, encouraging tolerance for cultural diversity. The FAC-FEA aims to ensure access to scientific knowledge to those who have historically been deprived of this right, concerned with the effective inclusion and permanence in school and its critical insertion and active in various social spheres.

In short, the FAC-FEA are committed to quality education, to opportunities for socializing and historically accumulated knowledge construction, production and application of technical and scientific knowledge focused on man and society, aiming to meet them effectively to be able to contribute in its formation and transformation. The quality of education depends on the insertion of the university community to meet the demands of the population and guarantee the autonomy of students researching and developing the critical knowledge, having the principal responsibility and the ethics of building a real and profound change in civilization. In achieving this goal, the continuing education of its faculty is a priority as the process of overcoming the alienation and exclusion is critical for the formation of education professionals in our society.

In realization of these objectives, the FAC-FEA seeks to build an educational practice that enables the effective development of responsibility, this implies the full realization of rights and the consistent performance of duties, as stated by Paulo Freire (2001), guaranteeing to every human being dignity and respect, providing them with the universal human-rights.

In short, the FAC-FEA, on the above, will provide fundamental MISSION:

1. creation of democratic spaces;
2. access, construction and socialization of historically accumulated knowledge;
3. inclusion of students in the workplace;
4. FAC-FEA integration of the community;
5. integrated continuing education of its faculty and students;
6. commitment to discuss and propose actions aimed at economic, political and social development in the region.